Dietrich Buxtehude is probably most familiar to modern classical music audiences as the man who inspired the young Johann Sebastian Bach to make a lengthy pilgrimage to Lubeck, Buxtehude's place of employment and residence for most of his life, just to hear Buxtehude play the organ. But Buxtehude was a major figure among German Baroque composers in his own right. Though we do not have copies of much of the work that most impressed his contemporaries, Buxtehude nonetheless left behind a body of vocal and instrumental music which is distinguished by its contrapuntal skill, devotional atmosphere, and raw intensity. He helped develop the form of the church cantata, later perfected by Bach, and he was just as famous a virtuoso on the organ.

This chorale prelude sets the Lutheran chorale "Es ist das Heil uns kommen her." The chorale originated in the 1520s and it clarifies the Lutheran doctrine of the relationship between faith and works in receiving forgiveness and salvation from Jesus Christ. The first verse reads as follows, "Salvation comes to us through mercy and true goodness; Works they don't really help us, they cannot protect us. Faith pulls in Jesus Christ, who has done enough for us already, he has become our mediator." The other verse of the hymn explain the Martin Luther's doctrine, that mankind cannot avoid sin, sin brings man under condemnation from God. Jesus Christ paid for this debt of sin, and mankind can receive forgiveness through faith in Jesus Christ. The chorale also posits that faith also lies at the root of all good works and encourages the believer to develop faith rather than obsessing about doing good deeds.

Buxtehude places the chorale melody in the soprano range, and uses some fairly elaborate ornamentation. The music of the first two phrases of the chorale is repeated with a different text, a common pattern in Lutheran chorales, and Buxtehude subjects the repeated music to more elaborate ornamentation the second time around.

Source: AllMusic (https://www.allmusic.com/composition/chorale-prelude-f or-organ-in-c-major-buxwv-186-es-ist-das-heil-uns-komme n-her-mc0002356714 ).

I created this Interpretation of the Choral Prelude: "Es ist das Heil uns kommen her" (BuxWV 186) for Oboe & Piano.